This time last year we were busy preparing to host the launch of Disability Confident here at the REC with the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work: Penny Mordaunt. This important milestone was an opportunity to showcase the galvanizing role our industry can play in driving the disability and wider inclusion agenda.

Now, one year on, the themes of progression, quality work and opportunities for all are gaining more traction following on from various government reviews including the Matthew Taylor Review. This also came through strongly at the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative (RIDI) conference last week with the Minister stressing that "unless all UK citizens can reach their full potential, our nation won't".

What is the recruitment industry doing?

Creating a future jobs market that works for all was a core theme of our recent Future of jobs report and is at the heart of our ‘jobs transform lives’ mantra. People should be able to access and progress through work irrespective of their backgrounds; initiatives like Disability Confident can act as a key enabler, providing employers with the support they need to become more inclusive.

Our industry is playing its part and our contribution is being recognised. REC members TBT Recruitment were the 5,000th sign up to Disability Confident in September. Also ManpowerGroup are now representing the recruitment industry on Disability Confident’s Business Leaders Group. Richard Elliot, HR Director at ManpowerGroup will be penning a blog for us next week on Manpower’s journey to becoming Disability Confident so watch this space.

What's next?

Recruiters are making a difference but we want to ramp this up another notch. To mark the first anniversary of Disability Confident, we’re releasing a series of videos and blogs to promote disability employment and encourage as many recruiters and employers as possible to sign up to the scheme. In our first video, I talk about the business case for taking action.

We are also actively promoting Disability Confident and the wider inclusion agenda through our ongoing Good Recruitment Campaign and events such as our Inclusive Recruitment Forum on 16 November. The focus here will be on disability employment and a range of other issues including unconscious bias, the future of jobs and the recruitment of people with convictions.

We look forward to seeing you then and to taking stock of our industry’s role in driving the inclusion agenda.

Tom Hadley is Director of Policy and Professional Services at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). His role focuses on lobbying key Government and EU officials on a range of labour market issues and highlighting REC initiatives to promote industry standards, including enforcement of a Code of Professional Practice, audit schemes and the Diversity Pledge. Previous roles include six years at the CBI, working at recruitment and economic development consultancy MBA Training Research & Development, a traineeship within the European Commission and working for the in-house legal department of the French multi-national Vivendi.